Conventionally, fishing lures such as floating plugs have one or more single multiple barbed hooks mounted to the lure body at fixed locations such that the fish in grasping the plug in its mouth, either hooks himself, or the fisherman in reacting to the strike and upon pulling the line to which the lure is directly and fixedly attached pulls the hook or hooks into the fish's mouth by causing the plug to move despite the fishes grip on the plug.
In an attempt to facilitate the hooking of the fish upon the fish grasping the lure body, commonly simulating a bait fish and so shaped, one or more hooks have been mounted to a member reciprocating longitudinally within the lure body and which is spring biased into a projected or retracted position.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,244,271 to Voigt discloses a trap hook formed of a wire or rod element which includes a bait hook and a snag hook which independently slide with respect to each other. A resilient spring between the hooks prevents tangling. The fish in taking the bait hook, causes the bait hook to shift in the direction of the snag treble hook against the bias of a coil spring to snag the fish and further hold it.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,546,614 and 2,552,113 to Prentice provide a fishing lure which is spring activated to project a treble hook outwardly into the mouth of the fish once the lure is struck. The Prentice lures are designed to prevent fouling of trouble hooks with weeds.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,722,764 to Juhrend discloses a fishing lure in which the hooks project on striking of the fish from a retracted position where it normally resides to prevent fouling with the weeds as the lure is being pulled by the line fixed to the front of the lure.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,505,052 to Kridler discloses a plug type lure with a spring biased plunger projecting the treble hooks from the rear of the lure. The plunger is unlatched upon the fish striking the lure.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,538,883 to Warden discloses a fish lure in which multiple hooks have the shanks thereof maintained by friction in an initial position subject to strike by the fish. The shanks readily release from within a slit of the fish lure body, upon fish striking.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,791,084 to Pike teaches a spring biased plunger bearing two pivotal hooks which are normally retracted into slots within the lure body. A latch retains the plunger in a position where it compresses a biasing spring. The latch is released upon strike of the fish to project the hooks outwardly of the body and into the mouth of the fish grasping the artificial bait.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,100 to Zeman discloses a pair treble hooks on a lure body which are rotatable and held in close proximity to the body by catches, spring biased into a projected position. A latch release action takes effect upon the fish striking the body bearing the hooks.
While these lures intend to improve the percentage of hooked fish upon striking of the lure body, they are not always effective particularly where the lure is grasped by a large and/or tough-mouthed fish who grabs the lure so tightly that when the fisherman strikes, the lure, and therefore the hooks, do not move. Alternatively, if the hooks are released, they often do not move in a direction to impale the jaw of the fish.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved fishing lure in which one or more hooks carried by the lure move forward towards the front of the lure to ensure hooking of the fish even though the lure is held tightly by the fish.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a improved fishing lure in which the hooks are movable within the body of the lure, in a direction towards the front of the lure, and in which, the action is effected by connecting the fish line directly to a hook, or multiple hook assembly and not to the lure body.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a fishing lure in which the hooks are spring biased in a rearward direction with respect to the body slidably housing the same, by a metal coil spring or by one or more rubber bands.